Poconos will soon require 10-digit dialing

Sometime between July and September, residents in the 570 area code will have to dial 10 digits for all local calls. Phone carriers will run out of numbers within the 570 area code; when that happens, a 272 area code will be added to the Poconos

Sometime between July and September, residents in the 570 area code will have to dial 10 digits for all local calls.

Phone carriers will run out of numbers within the 570 area code. When that happens, a 272 area code will be added to the Poconos for new telephone service.

Current 570 and future 272 customers will have to dial the area code and seven-digit number for all local calls — including calls to another 570 number.

The public has been given an adjustment period when customers can reach phones in the 570 region with either seven or 10-digit dialing, according to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

That period will begin six months before the first 272 number is issued. The adjustment period, or what is referred to as a "permissive" period, was just extended by the PUC from three months. That means this period will begin shortly after the new year.

At the end of the permissive period, the mandatory dialing period begins. All calls will require you dial the area code, plus the seven-digit number.

If you dial just the seven-digit number, you'll reach a recorded announcement stating you must hang up and redial the number using the area code plus the seven-digit number.

Residents of the West End with a 610 area code already use 10-digit dialing.

Individual phone carriers, like Verizon and AT&T, maintain inventories of phone numbers, according to McCracken. It will be up to each carrier whether it will reuse abandoned 570 numbers. Carriers must wait three months before reissuing a number.

Once the 272 code is opened, there will be no geographic or user delineation as to who will receive the new area codes.

Each carrier will conduct customer education programs during the six-month permissive period to familiarize users with the new 10-digit dialing system, McCracken said.

The changeover is being administered by Nuestar Inc., a Sterling, Va.-based third-party area code administrator. The company will notify the PUC six months before the 570 phone number inventory runs dry.

The current 570 area code is large and covers the northeastern portion of Pennsylvania, extending more than halfway across the state.